Antonín Dvořák Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904) was a Czechs, Czech composer. Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravian traditional music, Moravia and his native Bohemia, following t ...

's Serenade for Strings in

E major E major (or the key of E) is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equivalent, ...

( cs, Smyčcová serenáda E dur), Op. 22 (B. 52), is one of the composer's most popular orchestral works. It was composed in just two weeks in May 1875.

Composition and premiere

By 1875, Dvořák was gaining recognition as a composer. He received a generous stipend from a commission in Vienna, allowing him to write the ''Serenade'', in addition to Symphony No. 5, String Quintet No. 2, Piano Trio No. 1, the opera ''

Vanda ''Vanda'', abbreviated in the horticultural trade as ''V.,'' is a genus in the orchid family, Orchidaceae. There are about 87 species, and the genus is commonly cultivated for the marketplace. This genus and its allies are considered to be among ...

'', and the '' Moravian Duets''. Dvořák is said to have written the ''Serenade'' in just 12 days, from 3 to 14 May. The piece premiered in Prague on 10 December 1876 by

Adolf Čech Adolf Čech (born Adolf Jan Antonin Tausik; 11 December 184127 December 1903) was a Czech conductor, who premiered a number of significant works by Antonín Dvořák (the 2nd, 5th and 6th symphonies, more than any other conductor; other importan ...

and the combined orchestras of the Czech and German theatres. Dvořák's piano duet arrangement was published in Prague in 1877 by Emanuel Starý. Two years later,

Bote & Bock Bote & Bock is a German publishing house founded in Berlin in 1838 by Eduard Bote and Gustav Bock (1813-1863). The first Gustav Bock was a musically gifted publisher with an eye for opera. Eduard Bote wi